Originally Posted by
ajaybaskar
Let me explain. India never knew that they will play only 29 overs. They had planned their innings for 50 overs. If it rains and brings the batting team's innings to an abrupt end, the chasing team will have an upperhand, knowing the exact target and no of overs to get it. The first batted team wouldn't have had this luxury. They could've begun slowly but may have ended with a huge score. To minimise this, D/L method is used with runs scored and wickets fallen taken into account. Since India had lost only 3 wickets, the target for SL was 170+. If we had lost only 1 wicket, then SL wouldve chased a 200+ target. If we had lost 9 wickets, SL would've chased a smaller target.